1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio telephone technique and more particularly, to a radio telephone system equipped with additional functions such as voice mail and absent call transfer, and a method of displaying specific data or information about the additional functions on the screen of a radio telephone with icons in a radio telephone system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Radio telephones have ever been extensively used practically. This is because radio telephones are mobile and capable of speech communication from a remote place. In recent years, there has been the growing need to provide radio telephones with specific convenient functions similar to the additional functions of so-called multifunction telephones, such as voice mail and absent call transfer.
To indicate the setting or status of the additional functions, typical multifunction telephones have indication lamps or lights formed by Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) The indication lamps are turned on or off according to the present status of the additional functions. The users of multifunction telephones are able to promptly know the present setting or status by looking at the corresponding lamps being turned on or off.
To meet the above-described need of providing specific convenient functions for radio telephones, some additional functions have already been installed to radio telephones. This necessitates some contrivance for indicating the present setting status of the additional functions thus installed to the users. As a result, formerly, some techniques to display specific icons on the small screen of radio telephones corresponding to the built-in functions have been developed for this purpose These prior-art techniques facilitate the users"" selection of these functions and improve operability of radio telephones.
With the above-described prior-art techniques to display specific icons on the small screen of radio telephones, there are some problems explained as follows.
First, from the viewpoint of necessary compactness and power consumption reduction of radio telephones, a required number of indication lamps for displaying the status of the additional functions are unable to be installed on the compact body of radio telephones.
Second, the user may be unable to know or confirm the present setting of the additional functions even if the user selects some of the icons displayed on the small screen of radio telephones. For example, the user cannot know whether or not voice mail messages have been forwarded to his or her mail box at a glance into the screen. Also, the user cannot confirm promptly whether or not the absent call transfer function has been activated (i.e. the present setting of the absent call transfer function) from the screen.
Thus, to confirm the present setting of the additional functions, the user needs to access the center (or, the control section) of the radio telephone system.
Typically, the above-described radio telephone system is provided in an organization such as a corporation and thus, the center or control section includes a computerized Private Branch exchange (PBX). In this case, the PBX serves to provide the additional functions to the users, where the users are members of the organization.
However, the above-described radio telephone system may be realized with the use of public telephone networks. In this case, an exchange or switch device installed in the public telephone networks provides the additional functions to the users, where the users are not limited to the members of an organization.
An example of the related prior-art techniques to the invention is disclosed in the Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication No. 11-17789 published in January 1999. In this technique, an icon table, a function table, and a setting menu table are stored in the memory of a mobile telephone. In the menu setting mode, specific icons are registered so as to correspond to the additional functions in the setting menu table according to the instruction applied from the input section by the user. In the function execution mode, the icons registered in the setting menu table are displayed on the screen of the telephone and then, the user selects or sets a desired function or functions by selecting one or more of the icons displayed on the screen. Thus, the correspondence between the icons and the additional functions can be optionally changed according to the user""s intention.
Another example of the related prior-art techniques to the invention is disclosed in the Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication No. 11-68823 published in March 1999. This technique relates to a communications system comprising mobile member terminals and a common server communicable to the member terminals through networks. If a communication channel is formed between the server and one of the terminals, the server sends specific homepage data to the terminal thus connected. The homepage data contains icon data corresponding to the information services the server can provide and therefore, the service-selection icons are displayed on the Screen of the terminal. If the user of the terminal selects one of the icons, a corresponding one of the information services to the selected icon is executed or activated.
With the prior-art techniques disclosed in the Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication Nos. 11-17789 and 11-68823, it is clear that the above-described two problems are unable to be solved. As a result, there is the need to cancel the necessity of accessing the center or control section of the radio telephone system.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a radio telephone system and a method of displaying subscriber data on the screen of a radio telephone that eliminates the necessity to access the center or control section of a radio telephone system in order to confirm the setting or status of installed additional functions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a radio telephone system and a method of displaying subscriber data on the screen of a radio telephone that improve the convenience and operability of installed additional functions.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a radio telephone system and a method of displaying subscriber data on the screen of a radio telephone that solve the problem or problems caused by the fact that the setting or status in the center or control section does not accord with the data displayed on the screen.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a radio telephone system and a method of displaying subscriber data on the screen of a radio telephone that provide equivalent services to multifunction telephones.
The above objects together with others not specifically mentioned will become clear to those skilled in the art from the following description.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a radio telephone system having additional functions is provided. This system comprises:
(a) an exchange device for connecting/disconnecting telephone lines;
(b) a storage device for storing a subscriber database;
the subscriber database containing subscriber data of the system and status data about status of the additional functions; and
(c) a radio telephone connectable to the exchange device by radio;
the telephone having a screen for displaying specific icons corresponding to the status data;
wherein when a piece of the status data in the subscriber data has been changed, an icon signal corresponding to the piece of status data thus changed is sent to the telephone;
and wherein the telephone receives the icon signal thus sent and displays a specific icon corresponding to the icon signal on the screen.
With the radio telephone system according to the first aspect of the present invention, a storage device is provided for storing a subscriber database, where the subscriber database contains subscriber data of the system and status data about the status of the additional functions. A radio telephone, which is connectable to the exchange device by radio, has a screen for displaying specific icons corresponding to the status data.
When a piece of the status data stored in the subscriber database has been changed, an icon signal corresponding to the piece of status data thus changed is sent to the telephone. The telephone receives the icon signal thus sent and then, displays a specific icon corresponding to the icon signal on the screen.
As a result, the user of the radio telephone is unnecessary to access the center or control section of the radio telephone system in order to confirm the setting or status of the installed additional functions. This means that the convenience and operability of the installed additional functions is improved.
Also, since the status of the installed additional functions in the center or control section always accords with the data displayed on the screen of the radio telephone, the problem or problems caused by the disaccord between the status in the center or control section and the data displayed on the screen can be solved. Thus, equivalent services to multifunction telephones can be provided.
In a preferred embodiment of the system according to the first aspect, the icon signal is sent to the radio telephone along with a disconnection signal or a channel release signal sent from the exchange device.
In another preferred embodiment of the system according to the first aspect, the icon signal is inserted into a character data set that is sent to the radio telephone. The character data set contains specific characters to be displayed on the screen of the radio telephone.
In still another preferred embodiment of the system according to the first aspect, the icon signal contains a start code and instruction codes subsequent to the start code. The telephone recognizes start of the instruction codes by the start code while the telephone operates according to the instruction codes to thereby display the icon on the screen of the telephone.
In a further preferred embodiment of the system according to the first aspect, a first one of the instruction codes is used for designating an icon type while a second one of the instruction codes is used for designating whether or not the icon thus designated is displayed on the screen of the telephone.
It is preferred that the icon displayed on the screen of the telephone has a shape causing a user of the telephone to have an image about the piece of status data thus changed.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a method of displaying subscriber data on a screen of a radio telephone in a radio telephone system having additional functions; the method comprising the steps of:
(a) providing an exchange device for connecting/disconnecting telephone lines;
(b) providing a storage device for storing a subscriber database;
the subscriber database containing subscriber data of the system and status data about status of the additional functions;
(c) providing a radio telephone connectable to the exchange device by radio;
the telephone having a screen for displaying specific icons corresponding to the status data;
(d) sending the telephone an icon signal corresponding to a piece of the status data that has been changed in the database;
(e) receiving the icon signal thus sent by the telephone; and
(f) displaying a specific icon corresponding to the icon signal thus received on the screen of the telephone.
With the method according to the second aspect of the present invention, because of substantially the same reason as the system according to the first aspect, the same advantages as those in the system according to the first aspect are given.
In a preferred embodiment of the method according to the second aspect, a step (g) of sending a call signal to the radio telephone and a step (h) of sending a disconnection signal to the telephone are additionally provided. The step (g) is performed prior to the step (d) of sending the telephone the icon signal. The step (h) is performed after the step (g) if the telephone receives the call signal. The icon signal is sent to the telephone along with the disconnection signal.
In another preferred embodiment of the method according to the second aspect, a step (i) of sending a disconnection signal from the radio telephone to the exchange device, a step (j) of retrieving the database to find existence or absence of change of the status data relating to the telephone, and step (k) of sending a disconnection signal to the telephone according to a retrieval result in the step (j) are additionally provided. The step (i) is performed prior to the step (d) of sending the telephone the icon signal. The icon signal is sent to the telephone along with the disconnection signal in the step (k).
In still another preferred embodiment of the method according to the second aspect, a step (l) of retrieving the database to find existence or absence of change of the status data relating to the telephone and a step (m) of sending a disconnection signal to the radio telephone according to a retrieval result in the step (l) are additionally provided. The step (l) is performed prior to the step (d) of sending the telephone the icon signal. The icon signal is sent to the telephone along with the disconnection signal in the step (m).
In a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the second aspect, the icon signal is sent to the radio telephone along with a disconnection signal or a channel release signal sent from the exchange device.
In a still further preferred embodiment of the method according to the second aspect, the icon signal is inserted into a character data set that is sent to the radio telephone. The character data set contains specific characters to be displayed on the screen of the radio telephone. In this case, it is preferred that the icon signal contains a start code and instruction codes subsequent to the start code and that the telephone recognizes start of the instruction codes by the start code while the telephone operates according to the instruction codes to thereby display the icon on the screen of the telephone. Preferably, a first one of the instruction codes is used for designating an icon type while a second one of the instruction codes is used for designating whether or not the icon thus designated is displayed on the screen of the telephone.
In a still further preferred embodiment of the method according to the second aspect, the icon signal contains code sets inserted into a character data set that is sent to the radio telephone, the code sets being located at different position in the character data set. The character data set contains specific characters to be displayed on the screen of the radio telephone. In this case, it is preferred that each of the code sets contains a start code and instruction codes subsequent to the start code and that the telephone recognizes start of the instruction codes by the start code in each of the code sets while the telephone operates according to the instruction codes in the same code set to thereby display the icon on the screen of the telephone. Preferably, a first one of the instruction codes in each of the code sets is used for designating an icon type while a second one of the instruction codes in the same code set is used for designating whether or not the icon thus designated is displayed on the screen of the telephone.
In a still further preferred embodiment of the method according to the second aspect, a highest priority is assigned to a last one of the code sets in the step (f) of displaying the specific icon on the screen of the telephone. In this case, it is preferred that one of the instruction codes in a last one of the code sets is used for designating an icon type. Alternately, it is preferred that one of the instruction codes in a last one of the code sets is used for designating whether or not the icon thus designated is displayed on the screen of the telephone.